An Emergency Section?

This is a discussion on An Emergency Section? within the Saltwater Fish Diseases forums, part of the Saltwater Fish and Coral Reef Tanks category; -->
Hey guys,
Just was thinking about the site when a random thought came to my head about an &quot;emergency&quot; section in the forum. I ...

Just was thinking about the site when a random thought came to my head about an "emergency" section in the forum. I thought this would be a good category for all emergency situations requiring immediate to very fast feedback varying upon severity such as tank leaks, power outages, diseases that are causing the fish to deteriorate rapidly, and the latter. What would you guys think if we had something like that on here?

It is a good idea. The only problem I can forsee is who will give what advice. In an emergency situation I may take the first post as gospel and not wait for verification and find out to my detriment that the advice was incorrect.

this issue has come up from time to time and the only issue is with a board that you never know who is on and when they are on .. i agree with invert planet as to some folks not waiting to see the validity of a post for example say you have a leak and some one is foolish enough to recommend siliconing the leak with water and live stock in the tank and the OP runs off to do this .. first are they using the right silicone? second they will devastate their tank by leaving live stock and water in while doing this .. i know the average person would think twice but some one in a crisis may not or a really new person to the hobby for that matter....

unfortunately the nature of a board is to get as much info from as many people as possible and move forward from there....

I have posted(pics and all) a few times about sick fish and have lost each of them. I do feel bad about losing them and a little mad that i would get 80 views on the post and not a single answer/suggestion. In doing my share of research to into the matter I cant seem to find one answer to settle on myself and I see that not many people get help. From this, I realize if someone is on, looks at the post, and thinks they can help then they probably would(I know I would). So if i lose the fish then it is really because no one knows what to do. I also see the fish disease section as a emergency section because if a fish is sick then how long will it really go before it gives out. A week? I would think at the most it would go a week. I just think that were not all experts on fish disease.

I'd like to contribute here if I may...
I try to handle as many of the medical questions/problems as I can when I am here. I would love to see an emergency board, however, not everyone considers the same sort of thing as an emergency, which bogs down the board as I (and the others) still need to read through each one to prioritize according to need/urgency. That pretty much gets accomplished now as much as I can when I get time. The work I do here is voluntary so has to come 2nd to my job and the rest of my life. Most of the best/most knowledgeable members here have limited time to devote and can only handle so much in a given day, with mod responsibilities coming first. I know Byron pm's me from time to time to ask for help, and as I have told him and a few others, I'm always available that way if someone really needs help. During the day during the week I am on and off all day, thats the fastest way to catch me.

With that said, maybe there is a better way instead of an emergency board to flag the emergency situations? An icon that prioritizes that post as an emergency, something the OP can add when posting?

To mcb5522, I'm sorry if I never got to your posts. The time I can spend here is limited and I tend to go first to the unanswered questions link at the top of the user page before anywhere else. I have noticed not many "new" ones on a daily basis when I get here, so I'm wondering if something is getting lost or not working properly? If nobody answered your posts they should have appeared there, and I try to get here at least 3 or more days/wk. I stick exclusively to this forum so as not to stretch my own schedule too thin.

In any case, as this is being discussed, etc. I would like to let everyone know that if you have an emergency medical situation and have not received help within 12 hrs of posting, you can feel free to pm me with a link to your post and I will attend to those first when I get here. I will NOT handle thread content via pm, so please limit the pm to a link to the post on the open forum.

I enjoy this forum over all others online, so I will do my best to help here as much as I can. Thank you to the mods for making this such a great place to be. I know first hand how much work goes into it, and its greatly appreciated!